were almost totally destroyed, and that without the slightest external trace of any damage. The Termites had reached the boxes in which these documents were preserved by mining the wainscoting, and they had then leisurely set to work to devour these administrative records, carefully respecting the upper sheets and the margin of each leaf, so that a box which was only a mass of rubbish seemed to contain a pile of papers in perfect order."

In the British Museum are several examples of the ravages worked by Termites, one of which is an ordinary beam that has been so completely hollowed and eaten away that nothing remains but a mere shell no thicker than the wood of a bandbox.

Besides the species which were investigated by M. de Quatrefages, there are others in the south of France, and in Sardinia and Spain. One species, Termes flavicollis, chiefly attacks and destroys the olives, while in the Landes and Gironde the oaks and firs are killed by another species, Termes lucifugus.

As the limits of this work preclude a very lengthened account of any one creature, our history of the Termites must here be concluded, although much interesting matter remains unwritten.

IN the accompanying illustration are shown two nests, the two upper specimens on the right hand having been already described. They are made by the little spider called Agelena brunnea, and their history will be found on page 321.

The two lower nests are made by a species of solitary wasp, which has no popular name, but is known to entomologists as Eumenes coarctata. It is not a large insect, the females being only half an inch in length, and the male rather smaller. The general color is black, with a fine velvet-like pile on the abdomen, and relieved by lines and spots of yellow. The abdomen is small, and set on a rather short and pear-shaped footstalk, as may be seen by the illustration, which represents the insect of its natural size.

This is one of the species which are tolerably common in certain localities, but, as they are very local, may be reckoned among the varieties. Mr. F. Smith, in his "Catalogue of the British Vespidæ," mentions that it has been taken in several parts of Hampshire, Berkshire, near Weybridge, and has been found plentifully at Sunninghill. Probably the rarity or frequency of this species, as is the case with many others, depends greatly on the eyes which look after it.

This little wasp constructs small globular cells of mud, and fastens them to the stems of various plants, the common heath being the greatest favorite, so that heath-covered commons are likely to afford specimens of the nest and its architect. Each nest contains only a single cell, and is only intended to rear a single occupant. The wasp is a very useful insect, as it provisions its nest with the larvæ of small lepidoptera, each Eumenes grub requiring a tolerably large supply of caterpillars.

As is the case with so many insects, the Eumenes is greatly subject to the attacks of parasites, which contrive to deposit their eggs in the larvæ in spite of the hard mud walls of the cell. Mr. Smith mentiors that he has had from the nest of the Eumenes an ichneumon fly belonging to the genus Cryptus.

In the following illustration are figured the nests of two insects, both of them natives of tropical America, and both belonging to the hymenopterous order. The upper insect is known to entomologists by the name of Trypoxylon aurifrons, but has at present no popular name.

This insect makes a great number of earthen cells, shaped something like those of the last-mentioned species, the cells being remarkable for the form of the entrance, which is narrowed and rounded as shown in the figure. In some cases the neck is so very narrow in proportion to the size of the cell, and the rim is so

neatly turned over, that the observer is irresistibly reminded of the neck of a glass bottle. The insect makes quite a number of these nests, sometimes fastening them to branches, as shown in the illustration, but as frequently fixing them to beams of houses. It has a great fancy for the corners of verandas, and builds therein whole rows of cells, buzzing loudly the while, and attracting attention by the noise which it makes.

THE lower insect is the pretty Pelopous fistularis, with its yellow and black banded body. Both the insects, as well as their houses, are represented of the natural size.

The cell of the Pelopæus is larger than that of the preceding insect, and occupies much more time in the construction, a week at least being devoted to the task. She sets to work very methodically, taking a long time in kneading the clay, which she rolls into little spherical pellets, and kneads for a minute or two before she leaves the ground. She then flies away with her load, and adds it to the nest, spreading the clay in a series of rings, like the courses of bricks in a circular chimney, so that the edifice soon assumes a rudely cylindrical form.

When she has nearly completed her task, she goes off in search of creatures wherewith to stock the nest, and to serve as food for the young, and selects about the most unpromising specimens that

can be conceived. Like many other solitary hymenoptera, this Pelopæus stores her nest with spiders, and any one would suppose that she would choose the softest and the plumpest kinds for her young. It is found, however, that she acts precisely in the opposite manner.

In tropical America there is a large group of spiders allied to the common garden spider, but of the most extraordinary shapes and colors. They all possess a hard, shelly covering, polished and shining like that of many beetles, and glittering with bright and radiant hues-blue, crimson, green, and purple being the colors with which they are ordinarily decorated. Their forms are, however, even more remarkable than their colors. Their hard and shelly covering is not uniform and smooth, but shoots out into the most extraordinary projections, giving to the creatures a wild and fantastic grotesqueness of aspect that surpasses even the weird imaginings of Breughel, Cranagh, Callot, and other masters of diablerie in art.

One genus has the abdomen formed in a drum shape, the sides and extremity being covered with short, sharp, and stout spines. Another has the abdomen modified into a ball-like shape, from which radiate sharp spikes, like those of the well-known "calthrop;" while in another genus certain enormous projections issue from the abdomen, two being so large that in volume they exceed the whole of the abdomen and body. In one species they are thick, solid, and palmated, like the horns of the elk; in another they are slender, and curved like the horns of a bull; and there are other species quite as bizarre in form. It is from these creatures, more especially from the first-mentioned, that the Pelopaus selects her victims, and it is evident that the jaws of the young Pelopæus must be exceedingly strong to be enabled to pierce their hard and well-armed bodies. Like the previously-mentioned insect, the Pelopæus makes a loud and cheerful buzzing while engaged in her work of building.

MR. BATES, who has described these two insects, has likewise mentioned a builder insect of the same order, called Melipona fasciculata. The genus to which this insect belongs is a very large one, containing some forty-five species, some of which are very common in woods, and being extremely small, measuring only the twelfth of an inch in length, they are very annoying to the traveler, getting into his nostrils, and worrying him in various

ways. Fortunately, they do not sting, but their bite is very sharp, and if made on a sensitive surface like the lining membrane of the nostril, can inflict very severe pain.

The form of habitation is various, according to the species, but they all use clay for that purpose, kneading it with their mandibles, and then passing it to the hind legs, and pressing it into the hair-fringed depression which is popularly called the basket. Some species are accustomed to employ any casual crevice as a nest, stuffing it up with clay, and leaving only a little orifice through which they can pass. Others, again, make long tubes of clay, with trumpet-shaped mouths; and it is a remarkable fact, that a number of the bees are always at the entrance as sentinels, just as is the case with the hive-bee when wasps are abroad.

IN the "Zoologist" for 1864, p. 582, is a very interesting description, by Mr. P. H. Gosse, of the proceedings of insects which he appropriately calls the DAUBER WASPS, and which belong to the same genus as the Pelopæus mentioned above. One insect he identifies as Pelopæus flavipes, and the other is probably Pelopœus spirifer. One of these insects is now before me, and a very pretty creature it is. In shape it exactly resembles that which is figured on page 372, but the colors are different. The general hue is deep brown-black, very shining in the abdomen, and softened by thick down upon the thorax. It is, however, not a sombre insect, as the long footstalk of the abdomen is bright yellow, and the limbs are banded with the same lively hue. I strongly advise my readers to peruse this account, because it is full of detail, and contains much useful information about the method of working adopted by the insect, thus giving a clew to the proceedings of other insects which build habitations of similar materials. The length of the account is the reason why it can not be transferred to these pages, and I must therefore give a short.ab

stract.

Having seen many patches of a yellow mud on the walls and rafters, some as large as the closed fist and others of comparatively small dimensions, he asked some boys what they were, and was told that they were the nests of the Dirt-daubers. Finding that, as the weather became warm, the insects began to build, he set to work and watched them carefully. First he tried their sagacity by boring holes in their cells, in order to see whether the insects would fill them up, and afterward by inserting foreign